Chelsea Ngoc Minh Nguyen
@CNMNguyen
MPhil/PhD cand. social anthropology @Cambridge_Uni. Focus on Vietnam, China, South-East Asia. Formerly at the @UN in Indonesia (with East Timor), Thailand.
Three major phenomena that make 2024 so far an extraordinarily unprecedented time in Vietnamese politics & society: 1/
The rise in populism is often connected to the rise of social media. In the LSE #PPR, Gilat Levy & Ronny Razin show a change in the opinions of moderates versus extreme voters from the mid 90s, consistent with the ability to target via social media. ℹ️: ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31…
Of all the places I have seen in the world, Vietnam has surprised me the most. What an underrated, trivialized gorgeous gem this country is. I am blown away, in all the best ways. Best coffee, most friendly people, breathtaking architecture from French colonial days, and deeply…
Some are seeking to explain the origins of the Thai-Cambodia clash by invoking domestic rivalries in Thai politics. My thoughts on why this theory makes little sense, and why the conflict is far better explained by an international family feud: coffeeparliament.com/p/on-the-domes…
New, open access paper in @antipodeonline examines long term making of energy sacrificial zones in Global South, with green energy being latest avatar. 'A Green Energy Frontier Long in the Making: From Tin to Solar Power in the Riau Islands, Indonesia' onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/an…
Must-read discussion of China’s push for industrial automation with Prof. Sun Zhongwei. A few highlights: - China’s push for automation was due to labor shortage, not the cause of it. Workers don’t want factory jobs, prefer pay and conditions at service jobs. Factories were…
May's Beyond Neoliberalism conference rounded out a decade of rethinking economics. @kmac @70sBachchan note how 2015 kicked things off w/ big shifts in China, EU, and the US, including in @rooseveltinst's Rewriting the Rules. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/beyon…
For China's poverty reduction, income growth *within* agriculture was just as important as sectoral reallocation (moving from ag to non-ag). For Indonesia, agric income growth was far more important than sectoral reallocation, but income growth within non-ag also quite important
Thailand and Cambodia officially at war
RECAP 11.20: - at lest 1 civilian reportedly killed in Surin by Cambodian missiles - Thai, Cambodian troops clashing at multiple points along border since Thu morning - Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh advises Thais to leave country - Thai fighter jets responding to missile strikes
Please, no war. Sadly, I only see developments that are moving towards a war. The biggest enemy of this age is chauvinistic nationalism, driven by hate-fuelling and bad historiographies.
This could very well be the beginning of war. More and more Thais want to see Cambodia punished, and the few Thais urging restraints are being branded as Thais with Cambodian heart, myself including. #Thailand #Cambodia #ไทย #กัมพูชา x.com/KhaosodEnglish…
A short essay on the state of global digital capitalism(s) and futures in/from India and China, based on @LinZhang9 's ‘The Labor of Reinvention’ (2023).
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la, Ami Dar @AmiDar, Prof Lee Mordichai @LeeMordechai, Prof John Sidel, Prof John Chalcraft, Prof Gilat Levy, Prof Jeremiah Dittmar, and many more. Thank you for speaking out during these darkest hours of human conscience!
I am thrilled to share that my book, Mao’s Steelworks, has been awarded the 2025 Reid Prize (given for “the most significant book contributing to the understanding of Asia”) by the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). asaa.asn.au/news/book-abou…
Famine was such a death machine alone during the global WWII. It sparked a revolution in Vietnam in 1945. The French attempted to trigger a famine to prevent its collapse in Dien Bien Phu in 1954 from happening. Food is indeed politically powerful. #Gaza
The 1944-45 famine is an underestimated, but crucial event behind the rise of the Vietnamese revolutions (Gunn 2012). Goscha (2022) also documents how Vietnamese revolutionaries were haunted by the French attempts in 1953-54 to stoke another famine ahead of Dien Bien Phu.
Especially by Lan Xiaohuan!
A few more books that do provide excellent overviews of China's politics and political-economy